Successful SAP

implementation strategy
Whitepaper by Manoj Pillai,
Solution Architect
Contents

Introduction 1
Overview 2
Phase-wise criteria for successful implementation strategy 2
Best practices 10
Conclusion 10
References 11
1.
Introduction
In today’s time as organizations are growing larger and bigger, the processes and business functions
are also multiplying rapidly. To streamline all this complex workflow structure, companies are now
drifting towards ERP implementation to simplify their things. Since the market is flooded with
different ERP flavors (SAP, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft… to name a few) one needs to be wise and
careful in choosing a correct ERP system that suits their business needs.

Talking about SAP in specific – any SAP implementation is considered as a vital organizational ERP
process because it integrates varied organizational systems, facilitates error-free transactions and
reduces effort in production stage. A successful SAP implementation offers amazing benefits to the
organization as well as shares an attractive array of features with their customers. Few of the perks,
the organization loves to enjoy are: reduction in costs (which includes inventory, raw materials and
production), customer lead time and resource management.

In general, implementing a SAP system is not a simple task by itself because, typically, companies
who deploy SAP are either categorized as large scale or too big and very often, such organizations
possess several heterogeneous and distributed units all across the globe. This brings in a lot of
diversity among the system stakeholders – who significantly exacerbates the problems of SAP
system development since there is varied and conflicting needs and requirements most of the time.

As per the survey done, the projected statistics reveal astonishing facts:

• 35% of the projects are successfully completed

• 45% are unsuccessful either due to budget overrun or unable to deliver the required functionality
within the stipulated time frame, or else completely fail to deliver
• 20% of the projects are cancelled prior to the completion stage

Hence, it is highly recommended for the companies as well as the stakeholders to sincerely consider
these factors, such as – client’s requirement, existing business processes and organization’s vision
for growth as they plan to implement any flavor of ERP into their line
of businesses.

In this document, we will briefly discuss over the following points:

• Understand the key inputs for successful SAP implementation

• See how the constraints/challenges can be identified, isolated, assigned and addressed
• Learn about the strategy of successful implementation
• Get an overview of the various measures undertaken for implementation and more

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 As per the survey done, the projected statistics reveal astonishing facts – Only
35% of the projects are successfully completed whereas 45% are unsuccessful
either due to budget overrun or unable to deliver the required functionality within
the stipulated time frame, or else completely failed to deliver and rest 20% of the
projects are cancelled prior to the completion stage.

2.
Overview
An organization aims to adopt SAP implementation to meet these following objectives:
• An integrated system that operates in (or near) real-time without relying on periodic updates
• A common database that supports all applications
• A consistent look and feel across all business areas

Also, the management is capable enough to gauge the success of SAP implementation based upon
these criteria’s mentioned below:
• On-time delivery
• Deliver within the allocated budget
• Deliver the expected functionality
• Acceptable to the users (and hence used)

During the time of deployment, if a project fails to satisfy any one or more of these above-listed
criterias, then, it is obvious that the project status reflects as a failure. On a close examination, it
is observed that, these failures are actually associated with the socio-technical system and not
attributed to the failure in technology.

3.
Phase-wise criteria for successful
implementation strategy
Apart from the standard set of tasks, this whitepaper also shares a list of other detailed activities.
To make it more clear and for better understanding, the stage wise implementation is
depicted below.

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ERP Program Delivery Best Practices: ASAP
ERP Program Delivery Best Practices: ASAP

1
4 5 Continuous
Project
Preparation 2 3 Final Improvement
Preparation Go-Live &
Business Realization Support
Blueprint

Note: Details of box color code for the activity chart are as below:
Important and decision making activities Migration activities
Validation and preparation activities Training and documentation activities
Data management activities

a) Project Preparation Every resource should get

Purpose: Initial planning and preparation for the clarity over the project and
implementation. their goals, i.e., business
transformation underpinned
In this stage, from the beginning itself – each and every
by SAP implementation and
resource should get clarity over the project and their
not that this implementation
goals, i.e., business transformation underpinned by SAP
would change the local
implementation and not that this implementation would
business processes.
change the local business processes. Ideally, a project
team comprising of experts and heads of each business Project Preparation Activities
area associated with the company help a lot in driving this
underlying message.
As per the best practices, firstly, business process should Setup of Local Program Organization
be thoroughly evaluated and then streamlined before the
implementation process even kick starts.This would ensure Adoption of Strategic Framework

that the implementation would be as per the defined design

Establish OCM Procedures + Responsibilities
norms and business leaders shall maintain control over the
processes once the implementation begins.
Early Adoption of Best Business Practice Processes
Any kind of proposed change in the processes needs to be
discussed, should undergo a review and then finally get it Training and Documentation Strategy

approved by the respective Business owners.

Infrastructure Requirements and Design
This handpicked approach of defining the business process
in line with the best industrial practices helps in completing Data Management Standards and Implementations
time-oriented tasks, such as: configuration, documentation,
testing, and training in addition to the risk of failure. Also, it Data Cleansing and Data Preparation

helps in aligning the business processes with statutory and

Completion Check and Prepare for Next Phase
regulatory compliance segment by strictly adhering to the
digital governance guidelines.
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Key Points
1) Defining project goals and objectives (ROI).
2) Having a business project team comprising of key players like business heads.
3) Re-engineering the complete business process along with the documentation of approved
processes before the implementation starts.
4) Implementation team should have a panel of experts related to business requirement, such as,
systems and business processes.

b) Business Blueprint
Purpose: To derive on common understanding of
Business Blueprint Activities
how the company intends to run SAP to support
their business.
Basically, the Business blueprint phase is the most critical General Program Management
step during SAP implementation. In this stage, various
parameters pertaining to implementation design, such as: OCM Organizational Alignment + Change Analysis
consulting, customizing and support play a very crucial role
Early Adoption of Best Business Practice Processess
to cater our business needs.

Ideally, in this phase, the entire set of discussions Training Planning

and correspondence act as a base platform for SAP
implementation. By default, all the details that are mapped Local Business Blueprint Documentation

related to the business processes should reflect in the

Security Requirements
documentation file. Overall, the success of this phase is
strongly determined with an effective closure at this point.
Infrastructure Planning
Considering these facts, implementation team should
System Operation Strategy
include these list of activities while finalizing the business
process for configuration:
Data Cleansing and Data Preparation
• Linking current processes to the organization’s strategy
Completion Check & Prepare for Next Phase
• Analyzing the effectiveness of each process
• Understanding existing automated solutions
In this stage, various
The standard configuration component highlights business
parameters pertaining to
requirement gaps which is quite important as it showcases
implementation design, such
the dependent requirement as well as the target to deliver a
as: consulting, customizing
customized solution syncing up with business objectives.
and support play a very
crucial role to cater our
business needs.

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Business process gaps requirement can be fulfilled by three ways, as mentioned below:
a) Using in-built enhancement option, such as: exit, function modules, etc.
b) Rewriting the part of the process using ABAP to work in the existing system as per
business requirement
c) Interface to third-party system
These processes constitute to varying degree of customization with first one being the most
preferred option whereas the other two are more invasive and expensive to maintain. Alternatively,
there are non-technical options, too, i.e., changing the existing business process to another version
that matches the current or desired SAP requirements, provided it meets the business objective and
fulfills the organization needs.
Key points to understand the difference between Configuration and Customization are:

Configuration Customization
Mandatory Optional

Stable and predictable behavior Less stable and unpredictable behavior

Configuration changes survive upgrades to new Customization changes are sometimes overwritten
software versions upgrade, modification and by software versions upgrade, modifications and
enhancements. It is the product manufacturer’s enhancement. It is the customer’s responsibility,
responsibilities. and increases testing activities.

Improves organization acceptance Improves user’s acceptance

Reduces time and resources to implement and Increases time and resources required to implement
maintain and maintain

Rigid and complex to meet the organization goal

Flexible and adaptable to meet future organization
and objective with changing times if the same is not
goals and objective
considered during initial phase of design

The final stage of business blueprint should include an overview and presentation of all the frozen processes
along with requirement GAPS. Also, at the same time, it should propose a customized solution to their
end users keeping these objectives in mind.

The same should be attended by all key stakeholders so that the evaluation and sign-off is done after
discussion and review. The session would also include the details of risk and impacts of customized solution
for the business to review and confirm. If the volume or complexity of the customized solution affects the
timelines, the same should also be highlighted along with proposed impact on time as well as cost.

Key Points
1) Mapping of details related to business process, i.e., whether to use standard configuration or
customization method.
2) Considering the statutory requirements while mapping the business process such as: declaring
company inventory valuation methodology to the statutory authority. The same is vital because in
case you fail to deliver.
3) Validation of details, substitution, alerts and workflow should be captured against existing,
well defined and approved business processes.
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4) Various reporting requirements should be duly defined with standard details or else customized
attributes against each process.
5) Various integration points should be identified and defined such as: direct integration (integration
with PLC), database integration (SFC automated system like DCS), enterprise application
integration (web services, API) and custom integration with any legacy application or
third-party software.
6) Authorization and access control should be defined at each and every step based upon the
approved business policy as well as requirements.

c) Realization
Purpose: Implement the business process Realization Activities
requirements based on the blueprint.
At the end of this blueprint phase and before the start
of realization stage, an overview of all the master data General Program Management
templates should be provided so that the same can be
published later. OCM

The overview should share significant details of data which Early Adoption of Best Business Practice Processes
would further enable the compiling process to take place
in its required format. After which, sufficient time is Training Preparation
available for data cleansing based upon the volume
and business requirements. Configuration and Development

While configuring a SAP system, organization performs Unit/Process/Integration/Business Acceptance Testing

a string balancing act between the way they want the
systems to work and the pattern in which it was designed Infrastructure Implementation
to work. Typically, SAP systems comprehends of many
different types of settings which helps in modifying the Data Preparation and Data Migration Simulation

system operation later. During the system configuration

Cutover Planning and Preparation
stage, business heads and experts should keep a strict
vigilance on the statutory requirements and must sincerely
Business Transaction Planning for Cutover
adhere to it.
Completion Check and Prepare for Next Phase
The structure of the Realization phase is split into the
following steps:
While configuring a SAP
• Define the organization structure system, organization
performs a string balancing
• Configure the various business process
act between the way they
• Customize the business process requirement want the systems to work
(ABAP development) and the pattern in which it
was designed to work.

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• Generate the unit test scripts and cases

• Unit Test and issue resolution

• Generate integration test scripts and cases

• Integration Test and issue resolution

• Generate a mock GO-LIVE plan

At the end of Realization stage, it is mandate to finalize the data migration strategy so that it
becomes easy to migrate from any database to another one without any hassle. The migration
planning is fractionalized as per these following steps:

• Determine migration timing

• Freeze the toolset

• Decide on migration-related setups

• Define data archiving policies and procedures

Key Points
1) Adoption of best business practices for configuration.
2) Generation of plan for data collection and training.
3) Documentation of all customized objects within the business process.
4) Finalization of Mock Go-Live strategy.

d) Final Preparation
Purpose: To complete the final preparation
that incudes testing, end-user training, system
management and cutover activities, to finalize
the readiness to go-live.
In this phase, the key change happening with respect to the
Mock Go-Live plan
traditional procedure is to go for Mock Go-Live plan.

Data migration and cutover strategy – both of them should

be put to test before the project runs into the Go-Live
phase. This step not only helps in rectifying the errors
present in data collection, but also it enables the user to
plan out for corrective actions before the actual Go-Live
session gets alive.

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Success of SAP implementation depends upon the Final Preparation Activities
end-user training and acceptance. Hence, it is imperative
for the end-user to undergo a training session and
complete it successfully. The training program comprises General Program Management
of business process flow details, various integration points
and their dependency, to name a few... OCM

The end-user documentation should consist all the details

End-user Training
such as: integration points, validation of details and types
of errors with root cause analysis report. Cutover Management

Key Points Business Simulation

1) Mock Go-Live and end-user training.

End-user Practice in the System
2) Data migration and cutover strategy.
Infrastructure Finalization
3) Data volume and hardware integration testing.
4) Documentation clearly specifying the details of Data Migration to Production
location-wise business process owners with
primary contacts. Pre-Go-Live Operations

Final Cutover and Controlled Process Go-Live

e) GO-LIVE and Support
Completion Check and Prepare for Next Phase
Purpose: To move from a project-oriented,
pre-production environment to live
production operation.
Project’s success or failure gets strongly nailed down at this
last stage of implementation. Business users should ensure
that they swiftly adapt to system without impacting any
delay/concerns as they execute the business
process task.

It is commonly observed, post Go-Live – every user looks

upon the implementation team to avail some extra support
and prompt guidance which further leads to delay in
response. Eventually, team size comes into the picture for
the same reason. Smaller team size affects the business
processes very badly after the implementation as
they cannot address the concerns of all the users.
Ultimately, it leads to a situation wherein the quality of
the implementation is widely spoken among the
end-user's community.

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To avoid such situations, primarily, the standard warranty Project Closing Activities
support model should be changed where the issues or
concerns are directly raised in the ITSM tool itself. Firstly,
all the bugs that are raised in the tool, should be primarily General Program Management
evaluated by the location process owners, if they fail to
resolve, then it should be re-directed to the support team. OCM
In any case, it is mandatory for the support team to have
correct information with them, which comprises of process System Support

owner details tagged up with their evaluation remarks.

Business Support
ITSM tool accommodates precise and accurate reports
to track down all the issues which are logged under Project Closing
different categories such as: User awareness, Master data,
Configuration, Hardware, etc. Running the reports after a This kind of agility
week or once the system stabilizes, helps in appraising all smoothens up the entire
the issues reported under the User awareness or Master transition process and
data category. The same should be segregated and the ownership would be
accordingly respective action needs to be initiated. successfully transferred
This kind of agility smoothens up the entire transition to the process owners as
process and the ownership would be successfully well as business users to
transferred to the process owners as well as business users enjoy the privilege of SAP
to enjoy the privilege of SAP implementation as a whole. implementation as a whole.

Key Points
1) Formation of location specific and business process
wise team to be the primary support.
2) Design and publication of war room strategy as per
business requirement.
3) Evaluation of support team performance and plan
corrective action on bi-weekly basis.

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4.
Best practices

Project Preparation Business Blueprint Realization Final Preparation GO-LIVE

Draft Solution vision Configuration UAT

Governance AS-IS & TO BE Master Data and
Activity Customization End-user training
Project Team Gap Analysis Transaction Data
Unit Test Data cleaning
Project Plan Change Management Migration Support
System Integration Cutover Planning

Budget Execution &

Preparation Phase Planning Phase Design Phase Testing Phase
Support Phase
Estimate 10% 25% 25% 20%
20%

Success Define - Project Goal Standard Business

Standard End-user Training Quick Issue resolution
Project Plan Process based on
Factor configuration Data Migration User acceptance
Project Team Best Practices

Non-involvement of Inadequate Inadequate support

Improper
Failure Risk Key stakeholder in Highly User training for business
documentation
defining the project Customized Erroneous critical process
Factor Gap analysis without
scope, plan and team solution Data migration requirement
due justification
and issue resolution

5.
Conclusions
To conclude, presently, there is no complete solution which exists that can eliminate the failure of
SAP implementation in totality. In spite of knowing the reasons, the failure proportion still remains
constant because most of them get same treatment although there are different types of failures that
arise through various combination of factors.

The most important concepts derived from this whitepaper are:

(A) SAP implementation doesn’t work out if we adopt traditional methodologies
(B) The most critical phase of the project lies in the earliest, budding stage where the business
blueprint and project preparation play a very crucial role
Also, the gist of this whitepaper shares significant guidelines (listed below) which should be followed
by the project delivery team before they kick start with SAP implementation:
1) Define and develop a clear objective for SAP implementation.
2) Review and align all the processes with respect to best business practices.
3) Formulate the necessary change management mechanism which will not only help in overcoming
the impact of project changes that are made, but also assist in evaluating the risks associated
with it.

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These suggestions and tips may not guarantee 100% success, but if they are not given appropriate
consideration, then the chances of failure are likely to be greater than they could be assumed.

6.
References
• SAP Implementation strategy by Mphasis
• White paper: Key issues in ERP system implementation by Gordon Baxter School of
Computer Science, University of St Andrews, 15th February 2010 (LSCITS)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_implementation

Author
Manoj Pillai
Solution Architect

Manoj is working as a Solution Architect in SAP practice. He is being associated with

Mphasis for over 10 years, possessing experience in different roles such as Project Manager,
Functional Consultant, Team Leader and as a Mentor. He is also actively involved in SAP
internal training and tool/accelerators development.

About Mphasis
Mphasis (BSE: 526299; NSE: MPHASIS) applies next-generation technology to help enterprises transform businesses globally. Customer centricity
is foundational to Mphasis and is reflected in the Mphasis’ Front2Back™ Transformation approach. Front2Back™ uses the exponential power
of cloud and cognitive to provide hyper-personalized (C = X2C2 = 1) digital experience to clients and their end customers. Mphasis’ Service
TM

Transformation approach helps ‘shrink the core’ through the application of digital technologies across legacy environments within an enterprise,
enabling businesses to stay ahead in a changing world. Mphasis’ core reference architectures and tools, speed and innovation with domain
expertise and specialization are key to building strong relationships with marquee clients. To know more, please visit www.mphasis.com

For more information, contact: [email protected]

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